The Wrong Country to Take a Stolen US Warship

In March 1970, two American sailors carried out one of the most extraordinary acts of mutiny in U.S. maritime history, hijacking a cargo ship loaded with more than 4,500 tons of explosives and napalm bombs destined for the Vietnam War. The vessel, SS Columbia Eagle, was sailing toward Southeast Asia when Clyde William McKay Jr. and Alvin Leonard Glatkowski, two young men fiercely opposed to the war, devised a dangerous plan to seize control without firing a single shot. Armed with just one gun and a fake bomb threat, they tricked the crew into believing the ship was about to explode, forcing 24 sailors into lifeboats before taking control of the vessel and ordering the remaining crew to sail toward Cambodia. As American naval forces scrambled to intercept the stolen ship, the mutineers raced toward neutral waters, hoping to secure political asylum and prevent thousands of American bombs from reaching Vietnam. The U.S. Coast Guard dispatched the powerful cutter Mellon, while the destroyer USS Turner Joy and other military assets joined the pursuit, but the hijackers managed to reach Cambodia before they could be stopped. For a brief moment, their seemingly impossible plan had succeeded. Then everything collapsed. A political coup overthrew Cambodia's government, transforming the two Americans from celebrated refugees into prisoners, while their stolen ship and its explosive cargo were eventually returned to the United States. Glatkowski later surrendered and spent eight years in prison, while McKay escaped captivity and disappeared into Cambodia, where his fate remained a mystery for decades. This is the incredible story of the American sailors who stole an entire ship to protest the Vietnam War, triggered an international military chase, and discovered that escaping the U.S. Navy was only the beginning of their nightmare. -- As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Seas sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. I do my best to keep it as visually accurate as possible. All content on Dark Seas is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas.